Memoriam

This past Saturday the writing world lost one of its most wonderful and prolific members. Phyllis A. Whitney died at the age of 104.

You may not be familiar with her work, but she had a profound effect on me. I first found her in 1986 and at one point or another have owned most of her works. According to her bibliography, she finished her life with 77 books in print - mostly romance and romantic suspense with a few historicals thrown in for good measure.

While her books were never 'important' in the literary sense or thought-provoking, her words enriched the world around us. She transported her readers to many locales rich with history and intrigue. She gave them heroines who, while still soft and feminine, knew when to step up and fight. She gave them heroes to drool over who used their minds to solve their problems. Never in my recollection did she ever make any of her MCs too stupid to live.

I revisited one of her books last year, and while it didn't hold the same wonder for me as when I was a teen, it was still a beautiful novel to escape into for a day.

She will be missed.